


Twelve (and a bit) Hours

by Bethanlovescoffee



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Muggle, First Kiss, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Minor James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Modern Marauders (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:26:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 13,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28898118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bethanlovescoffee/pseuds/Bethanlovescoffee
Summary: Remus Lupin was having a relatively enjoyable day before his flight was horrendously delayed. The only silver lining of being trapped in an airport for twelve hours: meeting Sirius Black.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 51
Kudos: 296





	1. Hour One

**Author's Note:**

> Teen and up but only because of the swearing. Any CW’s will be in the chapter summery but all in all this fic is just some wolfstar fluff for the soul.
> 
> Edit: Okay so I was not expecting people to read this and although I had a beta reader, I chickened out from sending it to them because i hated this so much I didn’t even want feedback. In retrospect you’ve all made me see that was a mistake because so many people have sent me messages or comments about this fic. Thankyou for the support, sorry I didn’t take the time to get this beta read.

**20:00**

_DELAYED_

Remus just blinked up at it, reading it again just in case.

_21:00 -PARIS- DELAYED_

He sighed and walked over to the nearest bench, flopping down onto it. He wasn’t sure why he had decided getting a late-night flight was a good idea, of course there was every chance it would be delayed and he would miss the night’s sleep. With the flight lasting under two hours and a cheap hotel near Charles de Gaulle airport already booked for a night, he thought it would be fine. He could arrive, sleep, then set off the next morning to wherever it was this stupid cruise was setting off from. He was sure Lily and Mary had thought it was a splendid idea when suggesting he went. “You need a holiday, Remus,” and “you need some fun in your life, Remus.” Remus had decided early on in the booking process that holidays were not fun.

You had to do so many things to go on holiday, and you had to keep track of so many documents. He’d had to change his money in the post office and he’d had to make sure that under no circumstances did he lose his boarding pass, he’d had a passport photo taken that looked like some sort of police mugshot. He also did not speak a word of French. He’d gotten a B in GCSE but was pretty sure the ability to say that he went to the cinema with his friends was going to get him absolutely nowhere in actual France.

He really wished he’d taken some more English money with him now that the flight was delayed. A majority of what was in his wallet was euros which he now thoroughly regretted, considering they would be little use in buying him a tea or something in Heathrow. His bank card was safely packed away in his suitcase which had already been taken to wherever the conveyer belt takes luggage to before it goes on a plane.

“Oh, for fuck sake!”

Remus lifted his head to see a man staring at the departures board, folding his arms dramatically. Remus stood and walked over to inspect it for himself, in case his flight had been updated.

_Expected 00:00_

“Well shit,” he muttered.

Moments later, the board changed again.

_Expected 1:00_

The man next to him laughed, “Well that’s just cruel.”

Remus turned to him slightly, “Paris as well?”

The man hummed, “Yeah, although I’m starting to reconsider.”

Remus chuckled in response, “Same here.”

“Four hours delayed? I should’ve just taken the Eurotunnel.”

“Shit, why didn’t I think of that? I hate flying!”

The man cocked his head, “Why?”

Remus just blinked at him, “Well, it’s terrifying. Humans were not built to be that high up in the air, it’s a natural instinct that I’d be scared.”

The man ran a hand through his hair. It fell just past his chin and was silky black. Remus kind of hated people whose hair always looked perfect and something in him knew this guy was one of those people.

“I think flying is cool. You get to see the clouds and shit. Everything on the ground just looks so small and insignificant.”

“Not when you’re crashing into it,” Remus muttered.

“You know, statistically, if you’ve made it safely in the car to the airport you’ve already survived the most dangerous bit of the journey.”

“Oh, cool, well now I’m scared of driving.”

The man grinned at him, “Well, I’ll see you around I guess?”

“Yeah, probably. Not going anywhere quickly at this rate.”

Remus nodded at him before walking back over to where he’d abandoned his hand luggage. He rummaged around for his book and decided to just try and immerse himself in it, despite the fact that it was too noisy to really concentrate. He wasn’t sure how long had passed, not very long, though, he had only read a chapter, when he was interrupted.

“I come baring gifts.”

Remus looked up to see the guy from the departures board holding a KitKat.

“Got one from the vending machine but two came out, don’t really fancy the other one and you look in need of some serious cheering up.”

Remus chuckled and accepted the chocolate bar, “Thanks. You here by yourself?”

“Yup.” He sat down next to Remus without invitation, although he had just given Remus chocolate so he decided to allow it. “My darling maman reached out and told me to come and visit my delightful family over the summer.”

“I’m guessing all those adjectives were sarcastic?”

“Spot on,” he replied. “Wish I hadn’t agreed now. I got the latest flight possible to spend as little time there as I could. Starting to regret it though, arriving in Paris at three in the morning doesn’t sound ideal.”

Remus hummed. He was right, it sounded awful. “What’s your name, by the way?”

“Sirius. And yourself?”

“I’m Remus.”

Sirius laughed, “So it seems both our parents had a thing for unusual names, huh?”

“Well, Sirius is after the star, right?”

Sirius smiled, “Yeah, yeah it is. Man, the amount of people who think it’s after the adjective serious.”

“Seriously?”

Sirius narrowed his eyes, “Screw you.”


	2. Hour Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chapter length varies but they are all pretty short

**21:00**

“Holy shit this is boring.”

Remus looked up from his book. Sirius had decided to walk around the various shops that existed past airport security but he must have only been gone about half an hour before his return. He had already taken his doc martens off and was walking around in just his socks; which Remus had suggested he probably shouldn’t do but there had been no changing his mind.

Sirius slumped onto the metal bench and tucked his knees against his chest, drumming his hands against is them. This got irritating very quickly.

“Did you not bring something to do?”

“No. I still have belongings in the house in France, I didn’t pack anything aside from my hand luggage and literally all that’s in there is my wallet, passport, boarding pass, and my phone.”

“Then play a game on your phone or something,” Remus replied, turning back to his book.

“I have no games, not enough storage. It’s all taken up with music.”

“Then listen to some music.”

Sirius nodded, “Yeah, okay.” He put in some earphones and stood from his chair. Then he started dancing.

Remus looked up from his book and laughed slightly, “What are you doing?”

Sirius couldn’t hear him. He had his eyes closed and was smiling widely, spinning around and moving to whatever music he was playing. Remus thought he danced quite well, actually, and couldn’t help but watch him. How he had the confidence to just dance like nobody else was there, Remus did not know.

“Set my alarm, turn on my charm, that's because I'm a good old-fashioned loverboy.” He was singing now. Only quietly, only so that Remus and the old lady watching in amusement next to him could hear. He sung fairly okay too, considering the earphones probably blocked him from hearing his own voice.

He opened his eyes now and smiled at Remus, “Say the word your wish is my command,” he sung. Remus rolled his eyes and tapped the chair next to him, indicating for Sirius to sit back down. Sirius just stuck his tongue out and continued dancing before taking an earphone out and extending an arm to Remus.

“Come on, join me, I’m lonely.”

Remus laughed and shook his head, “You’re insane.”

Sirius huffed and sat down next to him, clicking his music off.

“I didn’t mean you had to stop,” Remus added.

“Why, do you enjoy my dancing?”

Remus broke eye contact with him, “Maybe I just enjoy you embarrassing yourself.”

“I wasn’t embarrassed.”

“No, I can believe that,” Remus replied, smiling.

“Why care what people think if you’re not going to see them again, right?”

“It’s good logic but I do not have the self-confidence to not care about judgement.”

Sirius nodded, “Then that’s something you should work on.”

They sat in silence for a bit, Remus going back to his book.

“What’re you reading?”

Remus slammed the book onto his lap, Sirius was like an annoying toddler.

“It’s called the charioteer.”

“What’s it about?”

Remus faltered slightly, “It’s a war novel.” He decided to give mentioning the plot line about homosexuality a miss.

“Boring.”

“How is the war boring? It’s history!”

“You say that like those two things are mutually exclusive.”

Remus just sighed. “How old are you?”

Sirius gasped, “Never ask a lady her age!”

“Okay, I’m twenty-one,” Remus replied, rolling his eyes.

“Me too. When’s your birthday?”

“Tenth of March.”

“Ha, I’m older than you and therefore far wiser and more mature.”

“You’re wearing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles socks.”

Sirius looked down at his feet, “Your point?”

“Okay, just…” Remus looked around desperately, “just go check the departures board and see if our expected flight time has changed.”

Sirius leapt up from the bench, “You got it!” He bounded over to the board like an excited puppy. “Hasn’t changed,” he announced upon his return.

Remus nodded, “Okay, well, at least the wait isn’t longer.”

“Why, not enjoying my company Lupin?”

Remus looked at him, “How do you know my last name?”

Sirius grinned and held up a passport. Remus grabbed it; it was his.

“What! That’s—that’s literally theft!”

Sirius just stood there laughing, “You want to know something? You dropped it. When I went to the departure board, I noticed it on the seat you were sitting on earlier, picked it up, and sure enough your adorable little face was staring at me from it.”

Remus groaned, “You looked at my passport photo?”

“It looks like a mugshot,” he replied, grinning.

“Yes, thank you, Sirius.”

“You’re welcome! If it weren’t for me, you’d never be getting to France! Better me find it than some kind of criminal who steals your identity or something.”

“Go on then, show me your passport photo.”

Sirius thought about it for a moment, “Yeah, alright.” He dug out his passport and showed it to Remus.

His full name was Sirius Orion Black. He was born in Fontainebleau, France, his date of birth was the third of November. His passport photo was annoyingly perfect.

“Well, that’s alright!” Remus exclaimed. “You look… it actually looks good!”

“I had such a bad hangover in that photo.”

“That makes it worse! I was stone cold sober when mine was taken but I look like I’ve been up all-night doing drugs in a bush.”

Sirius burst out laughing, “You probably shouldn’t make drug jokes in an airport, right? Speaking of drugs—”

“Never start a sentence like that.”

“I was going to say I would kill for a coffee right now; you want anything?”

Remus really did but was too embarrassed to admit it. “Na, you’re alright. Not the biggest coffee fan.” That was sort of true, at least.

Sirius jumped up from his seat and walked off into the airport. It wasn’t super busy. For one thing, it was a weekday during school term time. For another, it was getting late. Only a few more hours, Remus thought to himself. He could do that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Sirius is singing/dancing to is good old fashioned lover boy by Queen


	3. Hour Three

**22:00**

“I said I didn’t want anything,” Remus mumbled as Sirius returned with two Costa coffee cups in his hand.

“I know, but, well, you said you weren’t the biggest coffee fan so I used my detective skills to conclude that you like tea. If, for the first time ever, I was wrong, I can always drink it for you.”

“Thank you,” Remus replied, awkwardly, “I can pay you back but it’ll probably have to be in euros.”

“Don’t bother, it was only a few quid.” Sirius pulled twelve sachets of sugar from one of his pockets, “you don’t want any, do you? I’ve got white and brown.”

Remus laughed, “No, no you’re good.”

“Cool.” With that, Sirius proceeded to tear the top off of five sugar sachets and pour them into his coffee.

“Jesus,” Remus muttered, “you trying to kill yourself?”

Sirius barked with laughter, “Five sugars won’t kill me, Remus.”

“It depends how often you drink coffee, I guess.”

“Just trying to keep myself energised. I’m bloody exhausted.”

Remus nodded, “Yeah, me too. I’d quite like to stay awake though, at least then I can sleep on the plane and avoid being conscious for the flying bit.”

Sirius laughed. “Hide and seek?”

“I am absolutely not playing hide and seek in the duty free of Heathrow airport.”

Sirius tutted. “Won’t dance, won’t play hide and seek. Such a kill joy.”

Remus sighed in defeat and packed his book away. “I know it’s a bit of a weird time to eat, but we could always get some food? I have some English money, probably enough for a pizza or something.”

Sirius nodded, “Yeah, yeah, okay. I could go for some pizza. If we’re sharing you better not request some weird topping.”

“What if I told you I liked ham and pineapple?”

Sirius stood and dramatically started retching which earnt him a few concerned looks from bystanders.

“Oh, come on,” Remus muttered, trying to get him to shut up, “it’s not that bad.”

“Remus, quite frankly I am surprised you would admit to such a thing. In this world there are two kinds of people, right?”

“Just the two?”

“People who like pineapple on pizza,” Sirius continued, “and people with a brain.”

Remus chuckled, “I’d argue there must be a third category seeing as though you’re neither.”

Sirius laughed, “Touché!”

They ended up going to a dominos and getting a half and half pizza. Half ham and pineapple, which Sirius continued to complain about because “what if it accidentally contaminates my half!” and half hot and spicy.

“Fuck me,” Sirius muttered as the brought it back to a table, “thirteen quid for a pizza?”

“It’s a scam, I know,” Remus replied, taking a bite from one of his slices, “it’s good though.”

Sirius nodded, shoving some into his mouth, “Yeah, it’s good.”

“Okay,” Remus said, raising an eyebrow, “I’ve got a challenge.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Swap a slice of yours for a slice of mine.”

Sirius grimaced, “That’s only a challenge for me! My pizza is delicious, you’d be getting a good deal out of that.”

“What if I told you I am really shit with spice?”

Sirius thought about it, “Okay, deal, but you have to hold my hair back when I throw up.”

Remus rolled his eyes and picked up a slice of his ham and pineapple pizza. To his surprise, Sirius just opened his mouth. Remus hesitated slightly but leant across the table and held it out for him. Sirius bit into it and screwed his face up. “Christ,” he mumbled, mouth full, “this is awful.”

Remus smiled at him, “It’s an acquired taste.”

“So am I,” Sirius replied, dryly. He swallowed dramatically and opened his mouth to show Remus he was finished. “Boom.”

“I believe I said the whole slice,” Remus said in a sing-song voice, holding up the half-eaten pizza and slowly edging it towards Sirius’ mouth.

“This is the worst day of my life,” he said, sighing. He let Remus feed it to him, though, and pulled a disgusted face the whole time.

“Okay,” he said, grabbing a bottle of water and chugging the whole thing, “it is your turn.” He picked up the piece of pizza with the most jalapeños on it he could find and held it towards Remus. Remus hesitated slightly before giving in and just letting Sirius feed it to him, even though he was perfectly capable of doing it himself.

“You know,” he said, mouth half-full, “it’s not so bad.” Upon swallowing, he decided he wanted to take back those words. “Ah, fuck, why is the aftertaste like that?”

Sirius seemed to have cheered up significantly since eating the pineapple pizza because he was now laughing manically, “Oh come on, it is not that spicy!”

Remus coughed, “Liar. Why does it keep getting worse! Water.”

Sirius looked to the empty bottle he had drained moments prior, “Uh…”

“You bastard,” Remus replied, fanning his mouth dramatically.

Sirius just laughed harder, “I have some mildly cold coffee?”

Remus took his cup and tentatively sipped, “Oh my god that’s so much worse than the pizza.”

“Okay wait, two secs.” He stood and ran. It took him about three minutes, by which time the pain had somewhat subsided, but he returned with a glass of water with ice and handed it to Remus who accepted it gratefully.

“Where’d you get this?”

“Wetherspoons,” Sirius replied, “but don’t tell anyone because I don’t think you’re meant to take the glass away from the premises.”

“So, this is stolen water?”

“Well, technically it’s a stolen glass. I believe you owe me the whole piece by the way,” he said, pointing to it.

“Fuck you.”

It was almost eleven as they returned to the ground floor away from the food courts. They decided to wait closer to their gate just for a change of scenery. The airport was getting emptier and emptier as the night stretched on, which was perfectly okay with Remus, it meant there were free seats everywhere. Remus, rather optimistically, checked the departures board but it still said the plane wasn’t expected until one.

“Christ, I’m tired and it’s not even that late,” Sirius complained, rubbing his eyes and sitting down, his long legs draped over the seats next to him. “I really wish I hadn’t worn jeans. Jogging bottoms would’ve been a shout.”

“You can probably buy some,” Remus replied, looking around at the nearby shops.

Sirius smiled, “Only two hours to go. I can probably wait it out.”

Remus hummed, “Yeah, me too. Hey, I have a portable charger with me, we could always watch a film or something. Airport WIFI, you know?”

Sirius contemplated it. “Yeah… yeah okay that sounds nice. Which film?”

“I’m open to suggestions.”

“Titanic.”

“I am no longer open to suggestions.”

Sirius laughed, “What’s wrong with titanic!”

“What’s right with titanic?”

“It’s a classic opposites attract story with a sad ending,” Sirius insisted. “And it’s history, thought you liked history.”

“I like good history films, that’s just sappy romance.”

“Uh-huh,” Sirius looked down at Remus’ phone where he had Netflix open, “and that’s why you have pride and prejudice on your list, is it?”

Remus flushed, “That’s a good film… and a good book.”

Sirius smirked, “Thought you hated sappy romance.”

“Okay fine, we can watch titanic! But if you think it’ll help keep me awake, you’re wrong. Our gate should open before the end of it anyway…”

Remus tried to get comfortable in the metal seats, a task which proved almost impossible. Sirius volunteered his earphones and they put in one each before pressing play.

Remus had kind of forgotten how much he didn’t enjoy the film. Young Leonardo DiCaprio was about the only selling point and even that wasn’t persuading him to be the least bit interested. It occurred to him as he sat next to Sirius how weird this was. He was sharing earphones with a man he had met only a number of hours ago because they just happened to be on the same flight. About ten minutes in, he took his jumper off to us it as something comfortable to lean on which did sort of help make the whole experience more enjoyable. He let himself zone out and get lost in his thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wetherspoons is a chain resturant/bar we have in the UK  
> Costa is a chain coffee joint, similar to starbucks


	4. Hour Four

**23:00**

Remus slowly blinked his eyes open and was blinded by the bright lights. He’d fallen asleep. The film was no longer playing either. He sat up which is when he realised his head had been on Sirius’ shoulder.

“Shit,” he muttered.

Sirius smiled and looked at him, “Morning, sleeping beauty.”

“What time is it?”

“Eleven.”

“Okay, do you think our gate will open soon?”

Sirius sighed, “Nope. It got delayed again, only by half an hour, but it put some of the cabin crew over the number of hours they were allowed to be in the air for so there wasn’t enough of them to fully board the plane.”

Remus groaned, “So when do we get to fly?”

“No clue,” Sirius shrugged, “they let everyone sitting on the front half of the plane go to the gate just now. The rest of us have to wait in the terminal for another one.”

“And how did you know where I was sat?”

“Rummaged through your bag and found your boarding pass, didn’t I.”

“You could’ve woken me up.”

Sirius just shrugged again, “You looked peaceful. I figured you could do with the rest.”

“Yeah, well you could’ve shaken me off your shoulder,” Remus muttered.

Sirius laughed slightly, “Eh. Anyway, they said they’d announce more when they knew what was happening. Buying some jogging bottoms is starting to sound more tempting.”

“Let’s wait until someone comes and tells us what’s going on. The next plane could be here soon, right?”

Wrong. A man in a uniform appeared at the terminal and informed them all the next plane was expected to arrive at nine in the morning. He told them there were hotels nearby but any money spent on them unfortunately was not guaranteed to be refunded, although they could appeal and the airline would, apparently, do their best. He offered them water and blankets.

“Do you think this is Gods way of telling me that I shouldn’t go to France?” Sirius asked as the man walked away and groans of the remaining tired passengers rung out across the terminal.

“I think this is Gods way of telling you we need comfier clothes.”

Sirius sighed, “Yep, you got it. Wait here, you can look after my shoes.” He still hadn’t put them back on. Remus had, however, taken off his belt before they’d started the film in an attempt to maximise comfort and so couldn’t exactly blame him.

Sirius returned ten minutes later brandishing clothes. “Two options,” he said. “Plain maroon,” he held them up and Remus gave a half-hearted “ooooo” in response. “Or, plain grey. But they have ‘I heart London’ on the arse.” He spun them around to show Remus who started laughing.

“I am so taking the maroon ones.”

“Yeah, see, I was worried you might when I decided to buy the I heart London ones. Ah well. Bit of nationalism never heart anyone.”

Remus raised an eyebrow.

“Nope, you’re right, take it back.”

They took it in turns to go into the bathroom and get changed so that one of them could stay with the luggage. Remus gave a sarcastic wolf whistle as Sirius emerged and gave him his best model walk and then a spun around to show him the message on the back of his trousers. Remus applauded him as he sat back down.

“Right, Lupin. What are we doing? Hotel or stay here?”

Remus sighed. “Look, okay, here’s my logic. If we stay here, it’s free for a start. Also, they might give us free shit. Also, I literally hate going through airport security, it beeps for me every time I swear. Also… what if the plane is ahead of schedule? What if we’re not and it arrives early and then we miss it?”

Sirius nodded, “Yep, all good points. I would like to offer a counter argument… hotels have beds.”

“Yeah… I know. Look we don’t, uh, we don’t have to stick together. I don’t have the money on me for a hotel. Or the money at all, really, hotels near airports are crazy expensive.”

“Well, I could—”

“Nope. You’ve given me a KitKat and a tea and now jogging bottoms. You will not be paying for anything else for me.”

“I was gonna say I could leave you behind then.”

Remus shoved him playfully, “Shut up,” he mumbled.

“No, okay,” Sirius said, sighing, “we can stay here.”

“Sirius… you can go if you like.”

“Do you want me to? I have just sort of invaded your space I just—”

“No. No, uh, I don’t—it’s not that I want you to. But if you do, then that’s okay.”

“Okay… well I don’t.”

“Okay. Okay fine. Well,” Remus said, indicating to the terminal, “guess this is home for the next few hours.”

They ended up accepting the offer of blankets, which were hardly more than thin sheets of polyester, but managed to talk themselves into getting six of them. The armrests on the chairs prevented them from being a suitable place to lie down and so they decided to just stack them in a corner on the floor and sit there.

“Man,” Sirius said, leaning back against the wall. “I am having the worst fucking day.”

Remus scoffed, “Wanna talk about it?”

“That a genuine offer?”

“I mean… sure?”

Sirius groaned, “Okay, well, my best mate is pregnant, well, his wife is, not him, and he asked me to be godfather, right? I mean this friend practically raised me. We’ve been mates since I moved to England when I was eleven and then from sixteen, I actually lived with him because I had a falling out with my family that I will not be going into. Anyway, his wife is due in a week, and I’ll be in a different country because my family,” he did air quotation marks around that word, “forced me to visit them. I don’t even want to see them though. They threw me out when I was a teenager, I haven’t so much as spoken to them since then. I don’t want to either, you know? I’d just rather stay here.”

“Then you’re in luck,” Remus replied, lightly, “plane seems to be accommodating that.”

“Oh, and did I mention some guy made me eat pineapple pizza as well?”

Remus gasped, “He sounds like a monster.”

“I just don’t really want to be stuck in an airport either, you know?” Sirius sighed. “I’d just rather be with Lily and James right now.”

Remus nodded. “Wait… you don’t mean, this is a long shot, but you don’t mean Lily and James Potter, do you?”

Sirius raised an eyebrow, “Wait, what? Yeah, Potter!”

Remus laughed, “Hang on.” He dug out his phone and found a photo of him and Lily. He showed it to Sirius.

“What the shit! Yeah, yeah that’s Lily!”

“Oh my god,” Remus laughed. “Me and Lily are at Uni together! She’s my best friend!”

Sirius just gaped at him, “James is my best friend! Did you go to their wedding?”

“No! No, I missed it! My mum was really ill at the time. I couldn’t make it.”

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry. Is she…?”

“She died. It’s okay,” he added when Sirius gave him a sympathetic look.

“Shit,” Sirius muttered, “I can’t believe I haven’t met you before!”

Remus laughed, “Yeah… yeah me neither! Or that I haven’t seen a photo of you or something.”

Sirius shrugged, “Maybe you have but just haven’t registered it?”

“Yeah… maybe.” Remus was pretty sure he’d remember Sirius’ face if he’d seen it before, though.

“Damn. Small world, huh?”

“Yeah,” Remus laughed. “Wow, I mean… yeah.”

“Hey,” Sirius said, smiling, “take a photo with me? I can send it to James and Lily.”

Remus agreed and Sirius grinned, taking out his phone and flipping it onto selfie mode.

“Jesus, I look terrible,” Remus muttered. His hair was a ruffled mess of soft curls, presumably from sleeping during the film. His dark green jumper was incredibly creased from where he’d used it as a makeshift pillow and his eyes were more hooded than usual.

“You look good, shut up. Okay, do you want to smile or shall we just grimace at the camera?”

“I’m down for grimacing.”

Remus sat and hugged his knees, staring into the camera with his brows drawn together. Sirius stuck out his bottom lip and took the photo.

“Well,” he said, sending it to James and Lily, “I think that sums the mood up pretty well.”


	5. Hour Five

**00:00**

“I spy with my little eye… something beginning with—”

“Sirius, I swear to god,” Remus groaned.

It was midnight now and the, what can’t have been more than half an hour, nap Remus had taken earlier had not replenished his energy levels at all. Sirius and Remus were amongst the few people left in the terminal. There was a family with two young children who were all fast asleep on some chairs as well as an older couple who had also successfully dozed off. Remus envied them.

“Okay,” Sirius said, standing, “I can’t sleep. I have an idea, come on.” He grabbed Remus’ hand and Remus was not in the mood to protest so let himself be pulled into a sanding position. They decided the likelihood of the sleeping old couple or family of four stealing their few belongings to be pretty unlikely and so pocketed their valuables but left their bags, and Sirius’ shoes, unattended.

The airport was practically deserted now. There were a few people here and there but most of them were asleep or had headphones on, emersed in devices.

Sirius led him all the way to the other end of the terminal. “Okay, we are dancing.”

“What? Not happening.”

“Yes, well, I knew you wouldn’t agree which is why I didn’t tell you. It’s your own fault for blindly trusting me.”

Remus decided he couldn’t really argue with that.

“What’s your opinion on Bowie?” Sirius asked.

“Love him.”

“I am so glad you said that,” he replied, grinning as he let Bowie’s _Rebel Rebel_ play through his phone’s speaker before setting it down on a chair. “Come on, Remus, no one is watching.”

“You’re watching.”

“Yeah, well, you shouldn’t care what I think. Come on, I’m a stranger after all, right?”

Remus sighed. He did love the song. Sirius beamed at him when he started moving to the beat.

If Sirius was exhausted, tired, and fed up, you would not be able to tell. Remus’ initial perception of him had been correct in that his hair remained perfect despite everything. He was jumping around like he had all the energy in the world in him and his smile was pure joy. No annoyance or pent-up frustration or anxiety. Remus danced with him because then maybe he’d feel that care-free as well.

When Sirius started singing, Remus joined in. They were being quite loud but there was nobody around. They danced and danced and when the song finished, Sirius put on _Suffragette City_. They ended up dancing to every song on _The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars._ Once the final track on the album played, they walked back over to the piled-up blankets and collapsed.

“Admit it,” Sirius said, “that was fun.”

Remus didn’t have an argument or a snarky reply. “Yeah, it was.”

“You dance well. And you can sing.”

Remus blushed slightly, “You’re just saying that.”

Sirius shrugged, “Why would I lie?”

“To make me feel better?”

“You overestimate how nice I am as a person.”

Remus laughed. “You seem plenty nice to me. Besides, I know James. He is a good judge of character.”

“Right? He’s like some sort of wizard. That boy has singlehandedly worked out some of my biggest secrets just from observation.”

They spent the next few minutes trying to sleep. The blankets, it turned out, were not long enough to serve as any kind of mattress and so sitting up slumped against the wall it was.

Remus closed his eyes and tried to let his tiredness take him. Despite being exhausted, it didn’t happen. Sirius was restless as well. He curled up on the floor like a dog and removed his jumper to act as a blanket. “I should have brought a travel pillow,” he said, barely audible.

Remus sighed. “You can use my legs as a pillow if you feel the need. I did kind of sleep on your shoulder earlier.”

Sirius turned slightly to look up at him, “Sure? Will that not prevent you from sleeping?”

Remus shrugged, “’s not like I’m sleeping anyway.”

Sirius shuffled over slightly and let his head rest on Remus’ thigh. He fell asleep shortly after. Remus begged to do the same, at least that would pass the time. No such luck. He noticed the small rucksack Sirius had brought with him was open and leant over to zip it shut, just for something to do really. He knocked it over, however, his wallet and boarding pass landing on the floor. Remus hastily returned them to the bag but paused suddenly. He took the boarding pass back out of the bag and read it.

Sirius was sat in row B.

He should have gone with those sat at the front of the plane who had been allowed to board their original flight. There was a tiny possibility, Remus thought, that maybe he just hadn’t realised. Or maybe it was Remus’ fault. Maybe Sirius hadn’t wanted to wake him up when they made the announcement and felt obliged to stay. Maybe he didn’t actually want to go to France and see his parents, that was probably it. Remus sighed. That was probably it.


	6. Hour Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW for mentions of homophobia/family rejection and implied abuse

**1:00**

Remus woke up with a groan. He checked his watch and huffed in annoyance. It was one in the morning. He’d been asleep for about twenty minutes. Sirius was still curled up on his lap and Remus suddenly realised he was at a complete loss as to what to do with his hands. Sirius mumbled something in his sleep and Remus chuckled softly. He stopped smiling when Sirius did it again because this time Sirius had said a word very clearly. “No.”

He was having a nightmare. Remus recognised it quickly, he’d had a fair few himself. He knew from experience that when someone is having a nightmare, you do not just suddenly wake them up, you’ll scare them half to death. Sirius was growing increasingly restless and Remus still didn’t know what to do with his stupid hands. He placed one in Sirius’ hair. His mother used to do it to him when he needed to wake up from a bad dream and it was, at present, the only thing he could think of. He ran his hand across Sirius’ head gently. Then he repeated the action, over and over.

Sirius was still clearly quite distressed in his sleep so Remus kept slowly stroking his head, almost laughing when he thought about how he’d have done something similar with the family dog growing up.

Sirius sat bolt upright, Remus’ hand catching in his hair as he did but he pulled it away quickly. “Sirius, you okay?”

Sirius was breathing quickly. He laughed shakily and rubbed his hands over his face a few times before exhaling. “Yeah. Damn, haven’t had one of those in years.”

He took a hairband from his wrist and tied his hair back into a bun, playing with the few strands that fell loose and twisting them around his fingers.

“Do you… do you want to talk about it?”

Sirius thought. “You know what, yes? I never really talked about them growing up and that always made it worse. Seems easier to tell you because, well, I don’t really know you, do I?”

Remus nodded, “Wait, do you want a coffee from the vending machine or something? I’ve always found sweet beverages to help with traumatic experiences and, well, with the amount of sugar you take…”

Sirius laughed lightly, “Yeah, that’d be great. Thank you.”

Remus stood and took his wallet from his pocket. He had enough money to get Sirius a medium coffee and himself a small tea. He grabbed a handful of sugar sachets and handed them to Sirius as he sat back down on the pile of blankets.

“So…” he said, awkwardly, when Sirius didn’t go to say anything.

Sirius exhaled, “Right, oh god, I might regret telling you all this but I’m running on zero sleep so right now it seems like a good idea.”

“Uh… don’t say anything if you don’t want to.”

Sirius just chuckled weakly, “I said it seems like a good idea. Right, well, I mentioned that my family threw me out at sixteen yeah?” Remus nodded. “Well, our relationship was pretty awful before that. My parents are… how do I put this nicely? Quite conservative,” he settled on, “and I used to be a bit of a pain in the arse. I’d constantly call them out on their views and stuff, start drama at the dinner table because I could, that sort of thing. They punished me for it… physically.”

Remus inhaled sharply, “Sirius…”

Sirius waved a hand and dismissed him, “It’s okay. It was a while ago now. I just… I remember it sometimes. They used to do it at night normally so my brother didn’t realise. They liked my brother; he was the favourite child. Still is. Well, I guess he’s the only child they did kind of disown me.”

“Can I—can I ask why? You don’t need to answer that.”

Sirius shrugged, “Eh, I’m in the mood for sharing apparently. I don’t normally tell people this because I’m never quite sure of the reaction but you are friends with Lily and James and I trust their judgment. I’m gay.” He waited for Remus to respond. When he didn’t, he continued. “If you have a problem with that I’m not even going to apologise because I spent my whole life—”

“I don’t,” Remus said quickly. “You can keep going, if you want.”

Sirius nodded. “Right, well, I went to boarding school with Lily and James. My brother went there as well, he was in the year below me. When I was sixteen, I dated a guy. Only briefly, it wasn’t serious or anything. I wasn’t out, though. When I broke up with this guy, he kind of flipped. Told the whole school that I’d tried to make advances on him or some shit. I think he was scared about getting outed too.”

“Sirius… I’m so sorry.”

“It was awful at the time but at least I wasn’t keeping this secret anymore. But my brother, Regulus, well, he found out too. Told my parents. They were horrified. I ran away before they could do me any real damage. James’ parents became my legal guardians and my family moved back to France. It seemed kind of perfect, really. But now they want me back and I don’t know why. I hate that I’m still scared of them but, well, here I am.” He did some jazz hands in an attempt to lighten the mood. It didn’t.

Remus bit his lip and sighed. “I got outed as well.”

Sirius looked at him, eyes wide.

“Luckily my parents were really supportive and I had some amazing friends. Still shit though.”

Sirius nodded, “Still shit.”

“Why are you going to your parents? If you don’t want to, I mean.”

“I’ve been asking myself the same thing.” He hugged his knees into his chest. “They paid for my ticket out. They haven’t given me any reason to, but I thought maybe I’d give them a chance? I don’t know, there’s clearly a reason they want to see me. I haven’t seen my brother since I was sixteen either.”

“What’s he like?”

“Oh, he’s an asshole.” Remus laughed. “I’m serious—”

“I know you are. Sorry, tired, awful joke.”

“You know, amongst my school friends, there’s a jar. It’s called the serious jar. Every time you make a joke of that essence, you put a pound in the jar. Started off as a joke but we’re pretty sure we’ll be able to afford a group holiday at this rate. I mean we started this when we were fifteen and James must put at least forty quid in there a year.”

Remus dug out his wallet, “Well, here you go. One pound.”

“You serious?”

“Look, don’t try and trick me into it, I literally do not have two pounds to give you.”

Sirius nodded, “In that case you are forgiven. Consider that your only warning, though.”

Remus nodded and pocketed the coin.

“Okay, well, now that that’s off my chest… tag. You’re it.”

He stood and Remus looked at him. “I am not playing tag.”

“Yes, you are,” Sirius replied, “and you’re it!”

Remus thought about it, hard, for a second, before groaning and jumping from his seat. Sirius grinned at him and sprinted away across the terminal. Remus chased after him, laughing.

“I forgot you had I heart London written across your arse.”

“Stop looking at my arse!” Sirius replied, jumping over a row of seats, trapping his foot, and hitting the floor with a thud.


	7. Hour Seven

**2:00**

“It really doesn’t hurt that bad,” Sirius assured Remus, his arm still draped over his shoulder as Remus half carried him to the blankets.

“No?” Remus responded, “okay, you can walk by yourself then.” He let go of Sirius who stood there, his left foot not even touching the floor. Tentatively, he placed some of his weight on it. As soon as he did, he supressed a more vocal expression of pain, screwing up his face and inhaling sharply through his nose.

“I feel perfect.”

Remus walked over to him and placed an arm back across the span of his back letting Sirius lean his weight on him. “Come on, there’s gotta be a member of staff somewhere.”

They found someone eventually. A woman who looked very chirpy for two in the morning.

“Hi,” Remus greeted, “there has been an incident that has resolved in a broken ankle—”

“It’s not broken,” Sirius interrupted, “it is badly bruised.”

Remus hummed, “No, it’s broken. Do you know what we can do?”

The woman nodded, “Well, my advice, go to the nearest hospital.”

“And what if I don’t want to because, although the plane has been delayed by twelve hours, I have known A and E to take longer than that?”

She smiled slightly, “Okay, well, there is a Boots. They can give you medicine over the healthcare counter and sell things like ankle supports but if you think it’s broken, I would really advise you get it checked out.”

“To Boots!” Sirius announced. “Remus…” he hissed, “walk away.”

Remus thanked the woman and dragged Sirius back across the terminal.

They bought an ankle support as well as a variety of pain killers as advised by the pharmacy which, thankfully, was absolutely deserted at such an hour.

The ankle support meant Sirius could now walk by himself but he had to limp in an extremely exaggerated manner.

“When you get to France,” Remus said, lowering him back to the floor, “you have to go and get that looked at.”

Sirius waved a hand dismissively, “It’s fine. I’m sure It’ll just heal by itself.”

“Well, yes, it probably will. But it might heal incorrectly.”

“Okay, doctor Remus, I’ll get it looked at. Kiss it better?” he stuck his foot into Remus’ face who laughed and pushed it away.

“Piss off.”

“Oi, watch it, Remus. I’m an invalid don’t you know.”

“I can’t wait until you have to tell the doctor you broke it playing tag.”

Sirius laughed, “Yeah, right, I will not be telling them that. I’ll just say I was out on a run or something because, you know, I work out.”

“Yeah?”

“Na, I was on the football team at school but only because James was captain and he literally forced me to. Never played since.”

“And you may never again, with that ankle.”

“Oh my god, Remus, it’s just a broken ankle.”

“Aha!” Remus announced, “so you admit it, it’s broken?”

“That’s not fair!” Sirius protested, “I am injured and tired and you tricked me into it!”

Remus chuckled lightly before turning to Sirius, “You actually tired?”

“Physically, yes. But I’ve had a total of ten sugar sachets in like, five hours so my mind is feeling extremely wired right now. Can’t wait until I’m on the plane, at least then I can get an hour’s nap in.” Sirius groaned, “and then I’ll have a bed, ugh, I would kill for a bed right now.”

Remus hummed, “Yeah, well, I told you that you didn’t have to stay in the airport with me.”

“And I told you I wanted to.”

Remus looked at him, suddenly, “Sirius… I looked at your boarding pass.”

“Oh, and you accused me of rummaging through your things,” he mumbled.

“You’re in row B. Why didn’t you board the plane hours ago?”

“Oh…” Sirius clearly hadn’t seen the question coming and tensed slightly. “I just… I don’t know. You said you were travelling alone and it didn’t really seem fair to just leave you, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“I don’t really know what you want me to say? I stayed because of you, Remus. I didn’t want to leave you.”

“So… so not because you didn’t want to go to France?”

“Fuck,” Sirius cursed, “why didn’t I think of that? Way less embarrassing.”

Remus laughed, “Oh, so now you’re embarrassed?”

“Well, I just realise how weird that sounds. I’d only met you a few hours ago. Well… it still only has been a few hours I guess.”

“Yeah. Damn. Feels like way longer.”

Sirius chortled, “Time flies when you’re having fun…”

Remus rolled his eyes, “That isn’t how I meant it. Don’t get me wrong, the hours have dragged. But it just... feels like I’ve known you longer than that.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I get what you mean. Maybe it’s because we’re both friends with Lily and James? It feels like us meeting was a bit overdue, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, maybe. You’re right. I still can’t believe that this random guy I met in the airport shares a close mutual friend with me.”

“Maybe it’s fate,” Sirius said, wiggling his eyebrows which caused Remus to laugh.

“I don’t believe in fate.”

“No? Such a cynic!”

“If fate was real, I wouldn’t be sat on the floor of Heathrow airport at two in the morning after having helped you find medical assistance for a broken ankle.”

“Yeah… well, I mean if the plane wasn’t late, we wouldn’t have spoken, though.”

Remus shrugged. “True. And I mean that broken ankle was probably karma.”

“What for?”

“Making me watch titanic and eat spicy pizza.”

Sirius chuckled, “Yes. But young Leonardo DiCaprio!”

“I knew there must have been an ulterior motive to your liking of that film!”

“I stand by the plot as well. Even if Kate Winslet could have saved his life by just moving along and making room for him on that door but whatever, it’s fine.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” Remus added, “that book I was reading, the charioteer, yes it’s a war novel, but, fun fact, it’s publishing was delayed because of its positive image of homosexuality.”

Sirius laughed, “So it’s a gay book?”

“It’s a gay book.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boots is a UK store with a pharmacy that sells beauty products as well as medicine/healthcare bits


	8. Hour Eight

**3:00**

“Okay, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair.”

Remus groaned, “Okay, kill Thatcher,” Sirius gave a hum of approval, “kiss Churchill and shag Tony Blair.”

Sirius laughed, “Final answer?”

“Yes, well, Blair is the only one who isn’t a Conservative so final answer.”

Sirius nodded, “I respect that.” Sirius took his legs from Remus’ laps where they had been resting and stood, giving a huge stretch. “Are you kinda hungry?”

“I’m starving.”

Sirius smiled and leapt to his feet. “Is it weird that I want ice cream?”

They went to McDonalds in the end. Remus got himself some hash browns as it felt like a more suitable breakfast, although three in the morning wasn’t really breakfast anyway, and Sirius got himself two McFlurry’s and another heavily sugared coffee. Remus was quite surprised he wasn’t shaking in his seat.

“You know,” Remus mumbled over his food, “you should try and get some variety in your diet.”

Sirius chuckled, “What I eat whilst stuck in an airport is not a very good reflection of what I’d eat in a normal day.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Remus replied, shrugging. He screwed up the paper bags from his food and tried to throw them into the bin, instead hitting Sirius who dramatically sunk from his seat and onto the floor like he’d been hit with a bullet, not a small piece of paper.

“You’re such a drama queen,” Remus told him as he dragged him back onto his chair.

Sirius gasped, dramatically, “How dare you!” He seemingly dropped the subject, however. Until he was done with his ice cream, that was, then he threw the spoon and hit Remus square in the forehead.

“Ten points!” He announced.

Remus couldn’t find it within himself to be annoyed and immediately flung the spoon back at him. Sirius ducked, catching his coffee cup with his hand as he did and spilling the hot liquid all over his front.

“Shit, I’m so sorry!” Remus exclaimed, standing up.

Sirius exhaled shakily, “Fuck, that’s hot.”

Remus laughed weakly, “Funny that.”

Sirius pulled his jumper over his head quickly and Remus hurriedly took off his own and threw it to him. “Here,” he said, “sorry, that was my fault.”

“No, no I knocked it.”

“Yeah, because I threw a spoon at you.”

“You don’t need to give me your jumper, Remus, it’s fine.”

“Yeah, but your t-shirt is ruined as well, thought you could cover it up so nobody would know that you carelessly spilt coffee down yourself.”

Sirius laughed, “Oh, so now it’s my fault?” Remus’ jumper was too big for him and so rolled up the sleeves. It looked clearly borrowed nonetheless.

“Suits you,” Remus commented.

Sirius did a little twirl for effect, “Does it cover up the message on my arse now though?”

Remus nodded solemnly, “I’m afraid so.”

“Why is this jumper so long?” he asked, spinning, on one foot, for emphasis.

Remus felt his cheeks heat slightly, “I like tucking it in.”

Sirius smiled, “Aw.” It didn’t come out patronising at all.

The likelihood of them getting sleep seemed to become less and less with every hour. They figured that at some point soon, people catching early morning flights were likely to start appearing and decided to return the blankets and move their base, as it were, back to the chairs. Remus wasn’t quite sure if Sirius’ ankle had gotten worse or if he had just gotten lazier as Remus seemed to be talked into helping him walk everywhere, and the walk back from McDonalds to the chairs seemed considerably longer when he was basically baring all of Sirius’ weight.

“Oh for—get on my back.”

Sirius laughed, “What?”

“I’m giving you a piggy back.”

“I can’t tell if you’re joking?”

Remus took his arm away from Sirius’ waist and crouched slightly. “Final offer. It’ll be easier than dragging you around.”

He felt Sirius jump onto his back and wrapped his hands under the back of his knees. He was surprisingly light.

“How quickly do you reckon you can run?”

Remus scoffed, “You never learn. Isn’t one injury enough?”

“Bet you can’t get to the chairs before I count to twenty.”

“Not happening.”

“One… two…” Sirius yelped as Remus started running and he wrapped his arms tighter around him. As it turned out, Remus could get back to the chairs before Sirius could count to twenty. He deposited him, slightly out of breath, and grinned. “What do I get for winning the bet?”

“You get to give me a back massage?” Sirius suggested.

Remus shook his head, “Fuck off.”

Sirius gasped, “Language Lupin!” he pointed to the two young children who had both woken up before their parents and were now giving each other piggy backs and running around squealing.

“Are we bad influences?” Remus asked.

“Na, they’d be lucky if they turned out like one of us.”

“Think very highly of yourself, do you?”

“Maybe I meant you.”

Remus laughed, because that’s what you do at jokes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Churchill, Thatcher and Blair are all former prime ministers of the UK


	9. Hour Nine

**4:00**

A man in a uniform disturbed Remus from his sleep. He was surprised he’d even managed to drift off. He, yet again, had his head on Sirius’ shoulder and sat up slowly as he heard the voices.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you,” the man explained, “I was just telling your, uh, I just wanted you all to know that the estimated time of departure is now seven instead of nine. Once again, we are terribly sorry for the inconvenience and do have supplies if required.”

Sirius nodded, “Cool, thanks.”

The man gave them a nod before turning away.

“Well, huzzah,” Sirius exclaimed with zero enthusiasm whatsoever, “now it’s only ten hours late, how brilliant is that!”

“Terrific. How long was I asleep for?”

“Only like, fifteen minutes, I’m afraid.” He showed Remus his phone, his lock screen was him and James shirtless on a beach somewhere, the time was four in the morning.

“Sorry I slept on you again. You really can just shake me off.”

Sirius shrugged, “Like I said, you were only out for fifteen minutes.”

“You get any sleep?”

“Nope, can you tell?” he smiled and batted his eyelashes. Remus honestly couldn’t tell, Sirius looked almost as good as he had when they first met. His hair was still in a bun from earlier, but slightly messier, and he was still wearing Remus’ jumper paired with the jogging bottoms, which wasn’t the most flattering of outfits, but all that aside. He was not about to tell Sirius that, though.

Remus took out his own phone and opened the camera, “Oh Jesus,” he muttered upon seeing himself in the screen. “I need a shower and like, twelve hours of sleep. I look worse than my passport photo.”

Sirius chuckled, “Your passport really isn’t that bad, and you look fine.”

“Oh, you flatter me.”

“Fine, you look good? That better?”

Remus clutched his chest, “You flirting with me?” he joked.

“Have been all day but thanks for noticing.”

Remus dropped his hand and looked at Sirius, raising an eyebrow.

“Ha,” Sirius said, quickly, “well, that was a weird thing to say. Sleep deprivation and too much coffee is a bad combination, sorry.”

Remus was completely unsure of how to respond. He couldn’t tell if it was simply a joke that didn’t hit the mark or not. He opened his mouth and closed it a few times before just resorting to silence.

“Fuck, forget I said anything,” Sirius groaned into his hands. “Okay, we only have to endure a few more hours of this, there’s gotta be something else we can do right?”

Remus smiled and nodded, “Yeah, yeah. You’re right.” Part of him was glad to move on, a smaller part wished he’d asked more questions about it.

Sirius’ eyes lit up the way they had every time he came up with an idea, a bright bluey-grey colour alive with excitement. “Follow me.” He began limping as fast as he could and refused Remus’ help every time that he offered it.

“Aha, I knew there would be one.” He had stopped seemingly randomly, although when Remus let himself look around, he realised where Sirius had been leading him.

“Absolutely not.”

Sirius just grinned at him, “Come on! You said you hated your passport photo, let’s take some new ones!” He drew back the curtains of the photo booth; Remus stood his ground.

“Sirius, the bags under my eyes are probably big enough to be considered hand luggage!”

Sirius burst out laughing, “I promise it’s not as bad as you think. Come on, the lighting in here is brilliant.”

Remus sighed and shuffled onto the stool. “There is no way these will turn out better than the one I already have.” The machine started speaking to him. “Sirius,” he said, marginally panicked, “what’s it doing?”

“Whoops, I think I must have put the money in.”

“You bastard!” The camera started counting down and the only revenge Remus could think of in the five seconds he had to formulate an idea was to waste Sirius’ money. He flipped off the camera and smiled widely.

He heard Sirius laugh from the other side of the curtains as the photos printed out. “Well played, Lupin.”

Remus walked out of the photobooth shrugging. “I hate having my photo taken.”

“But you’re so photogenic,” he replied, showing Remus the photos. If it was supposed to be a joke, it hadn’t come out like one. He handed the photos to Remus but Remus just shook his head.

“Don’t want them. Have them if you like, something to remember me by.”

Sirius frowned slightly at that. “Hey, can we see each other again?” he asked. “After today I mean. Only if you want to, of course,” he added hurriedly.

“Yeah,” Remus nodded, “no, that’d be great. I’m sure we can work something out. I was already planning to see Lily and James in a few weeks so I could meet the baby. Do you live near them?”

Sirius laughed, “I barely moved out. James inherited the house from his parents when they died so I technically have my own room from when I was living there, actually. Although Lily keeps making jokes about how they’re giving it to the baby and I’m not convinced they’re actually jokes. But yes, I’m local. I’m like, five doors down.”

“I still can’t believe I’ve never met you,” Remus replied, shaking his head, “the number of times I’ve stayed over at theirs.”

“Not in the room with the balcony I hope.”

“Uh…”

“What!” Sirius exclaimed. “But that’s… that’s my room!”

“Well, technically it’s their guest room.”

“But—but,” he spluttered. “They’re so giving that room to the baby when he’s old enough, aren’t they?”

Remus patted his shoulder, “It is bigger than their current nursery room.”

“Man… I can’t believe James is going to be a dad. Hey, you know that scar on his arm, do you know how he got it?” Remus shook his head. “This guy Peter, another friend of ours, dared him to burn his arm hair off with a lighter and he actually did it, got a second degree burns all the way from his wrist to his elbow, though. Oh, he also once stuck this metal prong into a toaster whilst it was on. He survived, obviously.”

“Is that why Lily calls him prongs?”

“Yes!” Sirius said, grinning, “we all do, the name stuck. But like… that guy is going to be a parent, you know? Scary.”

“I’m sure they’ll be great parents.”

“Oh, for sure. I haven’t met two people more in love. They’re just so young, you know? It only seems like yesterday we were sitting our final exams together.”

“Aw, is everyone becoming an adult without you?”

“God, you sound like Lily,” he imitated what Remus assumed was supposed to be her voice, “you need a job, Sirius. Put yourself out there, Sirius. Let me set you up with someone, Sirius. I know just the guy, Sirius.”

“Yeah, I get similar talks actually,” Remus replied. “It’s Lily’s fault I’m here in the first place. Kept telling me I needed a holiday.”

“I never asked you why you’re here, actually.”

“Yeah, well, that’s because it’s embarrassing.”

Sirius smirked, “Oh?”

“Ugh, okay, so we have this friend, Mary, and Mary kept complaining about being single and so Lily joked about getting her a ticket to a singles cruise, right?”

“Remus this better not be going where I think it’s going.”

“She actually got Mary the ticket as well. But then Mary found someone…”

“Remus, please don’t tell me—”

“So, it got… regifted.”

“That is the single most tragic thing I have ever heard in my life.”


	10. Hour Ten

**5:00**

“I cannot believe you’re going on a singles cruise! That’s—I don’t even know what to say! Only old people go on those.”

“It’s for the under thirties,” Remus mumbled.

“You don’t actually want to go do you?”

“Of course not! Not even Lily thought it was a good idea at first but she agreed I needed a getaway and if the ticket was booked anyway…”

“Remus, you are an attractive twenty-one-year-old who would literally have no problem finding a date if you looked for one.”

Remus flushed slightly, “Well… that’s where you’re wrong apparently.”

“I literally can’t let you go on a bloody singles cruise! Go to France, fine, but I swear to god the moment you get on that ship you reach a new low.”

Remus groaned, “I don’t know why you’re telling me! I have said all of this to Lily!”

“Lie and say you’re not single. Can’t go on a singles cruise if you’re seeing someone.”

“I’m not though, am I.”

“Look, Remus, at twenty-one you’re meeting new people all the time! People who live locally. What if you meet someone on the cruise and they live half way across the country, or in a different country! Think about how impractical that is.”

“Like I said, I know. Trust me, I’ve said all this before.”

“Then why are you still going? You’re an adult, aren’t you? You could’ve said no.”

Remus shrugged, “I don’t know. I just… free holiday? I was just planning to stay in my room all week and eat lots of food.”

Sirius’ face softened slightly, “Oh. Yeah, that doesn’t sound so bad actually.”

“I’ve always sucked at finding dates but even if I did meet the love of my life on a singles cruise, that’s such a shit story that I would be too embarrassed to tell it.”

Sirius laughed and they sat back down on the chairs which were slowly starting to fill up with those getting early morning flights.

“Go on then,” Sirius said, “what did you mean by you suck at finding dates?”

“I just—it takes a lot for me to build up the courage to go on a first date and then I never want to go on second ones.”

“Why not?”

Remus shrugged, “I guess I just haven’t been on a first date with anyone I’ve wanted to see again. Lily says I have bad taste.”

Sirius laughed, “Says the woman in love with James potter.”

“She always offers to help set me up and I have literally never accepted after the time she set me up with this guy who had a bag of human teeth in his flat.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I didn’t ask. I just made my excuses and left.”

“Hey,” Sirius said, slowly, “do you—” he broke off for a moment, “forget it.”

“No, what is it?”

“I just thought…” he deliberately avoided eye contact, “maybe we could go on a date.” It came out very quickly, almost as one word, and Remus had to blink at him for a while as he processed it. “If you don’t want to, forget I said that, I’d still really like to be friends after all this I just think we get on well and, I don’t know, you said you hadn’t liked anyone you’d been on a date with and—and why aren’t you interrupting me to say something.”

“Okay.”

“What?”

“I said okay. Once we’re back in England I’m sure we can work it out. Yeah, that’d be… good.”

“Well, don’t sound too enthusiastic,” Sirius replied, voice laced with sarcasm. Remus gave him a playful shove.

“Let’s not get pizza, though.”

Sirius shook his head, “God, no. Hey, give me your phone number?”

Remus withdrew his phone and let Sirius have it. He couldn’t help but stare at him a bit as he typed it in because Remus would stick to his view that fate was fanciful, but this chance meeting felt uncommonly fate like.


	11. Hour Eleven

**6:00**

“Ice skating?”

Remus groaned, “Absolutely not.”

“Why not!”

“Well, obviously because I can’t ice skate.”

“I can teach you,” Sirius said, far too enthusiastically.

“It’s summer, not ice-skating season.”

“Roller skating it is then.”

“Not what I meant,” Remus replied, rolling his eyes but smiling non the less.

“Dinner and a movie is cliché, a picnic in the park is boring, ice skating is difficult. I’m starting to see why you don’t get many second dates.”

Remus laughed harshly and elbowed Sirius, “And with attitude like that I’m starting to see why you’re still single.”

Sirius hummed, “You could be onto something there.” They had not left their seats in a while for fear of loosing them. A new travelling day was in full swing and the day time flight passengers were all starting to arrive. Remus optimistically checked the departures board a couple of times but there was no change to their flight and so they were destined to remain at their gate for another two hours.

They didn’t speak a lot, Remus felt it was because knowing what to say to Sirius seemed harder now that he knew he was definitely going to see him again, and on a date of all things. He was going to have to message Lily and James at some point soon and tell them, if Sirius hadn’t already. Just when the silence was starting to get slightly uncomfortable, Sirius’ phone rang.

He beamed at Remus, “It’s James! Must have seen the photo of us I sent him.” Sirius answered the phone, still smiling, “Prongs!” Remus couldn’t hear what Sirius was saying, but his face suddenly dropped. “What the fuck!”

Remus looked at him, eyes wide, “What is it?” he whispered.

“Oh my god,” Sirius muttered, “oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my—”

Remus snatched the phone from Sirius’ hand “Hey, James, it’s Remus.” He put him on speaker.

“Hey Remus,” James greeted, “wait, what the fuck? You’re with Sirius? Since when did you two—”

"You didn’t read my message?” Sirius asked exasperated.

“My wife is in bloody labour, Sirius, sorry if your WhatsApp message wasn’t my top priority!”

“Lily is in labour!” Remus exclaimed.

“Yes! We just got to the hospital and I started having a pre-parental panic so I called Sirius to try and calm me down!”

Remus looked over at Sirius’ who was bouncing his leg wildly whilst clawing at his hair.

“I don’t think Sirius was the right choice if you wanted calm,” Remus muttered.

“Oh god, I’m going to be a dad. What if I can’t care for a baby? I basically still am one!”

Sirius was fanning himself dramatically so Remus decided to do the talking. “James, breath. How many first-time parent books do you own?”

“Uhh twelve? No, thirteen. Oh no, thirteen is an unlucky number, right?”

Remus couldn’t help but laugh, “My point is that you have read them all. Twice. Besides, she’s been pregnant for nine months, James, the birth can’t exactly be much or a surprise.”

“Yes, thank you, Remus,” James snapped, “real helpful. Sorry, I’m just freaking out.”

“How is Lily doing?” he asked.

“For someone who is literally birthing a child, bloody calm. Maybe I should ask for an epidural too…”

Remus chuckled lightly, “Okay, James, it’s going to be alright, yeah? You go be with Lily and I’ll calm Sirius down.”

“Okay,” James exhaled, “okay, yes, I’ll let you know how it goes! I’m going to be a dad…” he didn’t sound panicky anymore, just happy. He hung up and Remus gave the phone back to Sirius.

“Well, what was that!” Remus exclaimed.

Sirius just blinked at him, “I’m sorry! I don’t… I don’t know what happened! My brain just went into panic mode. Shit… I should be there, not in terminal five of Heathrow airport.”

“Would Lily and James want you there at the birth of their child?”

“Remus, the reason I know they’ll be such good parents is because I’ve been their practice baby for years now. I mean I still practically live with them,” he sighed. “I don’t even mean like, at the actual birth. Just… it feels wrong, going to France for two weeks now that there is a baby on the way. I mean her due date was a week before I got back which I thought would be fine but now I’m not so sure.”

Remus shrugged, “So don’t go.”

“But… my family—”

“Fuck your family. Say something came up if you feel like you owe them an explanation, if not, just don’t say anything.”

“But…” Sirius thought about it, hard. “I waited eleven hours in an airport to not even go… didn’t I?”

“Ce la vie.”

“Your pronunciation is horrible.”

Remus smiled, “Go. Don’t get the flight.”

“Will you be okay?”

“'Course.”

Sirius nodded and stood, “I still have your jumper on.”

Remus thought it rather suited him. “Keep it, or give it back to me when I see you again, I don’t mind.” He stood so that he was level with Sirius.

“Look, it was—” Sirius started, “it was amazing meeting you, and we can go on that date, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, awesome.” He held out a hand rather awkwardly which Remus just laughed at before giving him a hug. “I need a shower,” Sirius mumbled into Remus’ neck.

“Yeah, you do.”

Sirius shoved him away, grinning, but left an arm on Remus’ shoulder. “Right… well,” he said, slowly, “I’ll see you when I—”

Remus kissed him. He wasn’t quite sure what had possessed him to do it but a sudden surge of what must have been over-tiredness persuaded him it was a good idea. When Sirius kissed him back, he decided that maybe it was a good idea after all. Remus had pulled Sirius close by his waste and the hand that had been on Remus’ shoulder had slipped around the back of his neck. Conscious of the fact that they were in public, however, Remus broke away after a short while.

“Isn’t there a rule about kissing on the first date?” Sirius asked, smiling up at him but taking a step back so they were now at a respectable distance.

“I’d hardly count this,” Remus gestured to the airport, “as a first date.”

Sirius shrugged, “I think it met a lot of the qualifications.” He finally put his boots back on and picked up his bag. “Have a safe flight.”

“Send me baby pictures!”

Sirius took a few steps before stopping, “Hey, Remus?”

“Yeah.”

“You seriously wanting to go on that cruise?”

Remus thought about it, “Fuck it.” He picked up his bag, grinning, and followed Sirius away from the terminal.


	12. Hour Twelve

**7:00**

They walked out of the terminal and away from airport security. Slowly, because Sirius still had a very exaggerated limp, but away. Sirius had tried to call James to tell him about the change of heart with regards to France, but he was not answering.

“Hey,” Remus suggested, “if we go to the hospital, you can get that ankle checked out whilst you’re there.”

Sirius tutted, “If you insist. Remus… has your luggage gone onto the plane?”

“Bollocks. Uh… can I get it back?”

He could, as it turned out. But it involved them finding multiple people from the airline and explaining that he was not getting the flight. Sirius had prompted him to lie to make the reason as to why seem more Sirius so now, as far as the airline knew, Lily was currently giving birth to _his_ child. His luggage was retrieved for him rather quickly after that.

“You know,” Remus muttered as they thanked the airline staff profusely before walking away, “lying is a sin.”

“So is homosexuality and premarital sex, bite me.”

Remus laughed too much to argue with that.

Sirius ran through the doors and into the outdoors. “Fresh air!” he cheered. “Freedom!”

It was raining, typical British summer time, and was rather unpleasant, but Remus decided to smile about it nonetheless. The next step was to wait for the shuttle busses back over to the car park. They had to wait for five minutes before one arrived and when it did, Sirius ran onto it in order to claim seats. Remus collapsed into the one next to him, sighing.

“I cannot wait to shower and sleep for a day,” Remus said drearily.

“And see Lily and James’ first born…”

“Oh yeah, that. What do you reckon they’ll call him?”

“I was campaigning for Sirius junior but I’m not really holding out hopes for that. They have a name, apparently, but aren’t telling anyone. In case it doesn’t suit him once they get to see him. Don’t see how it won’t, all babies look the same.”

Remus laughed, “You’ll be a hell of a dad.”

“I know right!”

The exhaustion seemed to be hitting Remus hard now that they were finally free of Heathrow airport so he let himself slump against Sirius as the bus drove away. Sirius didn’t seem to mind and although the journey can’t have been more than five minutes, they had both fallen asleep, Remus’ head on Sirius’ shoulder and Sirius’ head on Remus’. They were woken up by a woman who asked if they had had an exhausting journey, they both just said yes because explaining that they’d never even caught the flight seemed a waste of time.

Sirius, it turned out, had been driven to the airport, which meant that he could now join the search party for Remus’ car, which they eventually found after what seemed like an eternity but can’t have been more than twenty minutes.

“Oh, nice!” Sirius exclaimed.

“Piss off.”

“No, I like the colour! It’s very… orange.”

“It was a seventeenth birthday present and I haven’t bought myself a new one since, alright?”

Sirius smiled and got into the passenger side.

“So,” Remus asked, readjusting his seat as whoever had moved the car had felt the need to fiddle with it, “where are we going?”

Sirius checked his phone, “Kingston hospital! James said we’re good to go there!” he scanned he scrolled up slightly, “Oh my god, she’s only gone and bloody done it!”

He showed the phone to Remus. There was Lily, smiling with a bundle of blankets in her arms.

Remus smiled, “Impressive! That was, what, one-hour active labour?”

“Baby was keen.” He typed a message before groaning. “He still won’t tell me the name!”

Remus checked his own phone. “Harry.”

“What?”

“Lily texted me. Harry James Potter.”

Sirius grinned, “James was never going to tell me either just to drive me insane! Than you, Remus Lupin, I could kiss you!”

Remus shrugged. “Do it.”

He did.


	13. (and a bit)

**8:30**

“Well, I gotta hand it to you,” Sirius said, sitting next to Lily’s hospital bed, “he’s bloody cute.”

James gasped, “Language, there is a child present!”

“James, he is like thirty minutes old, if he starts repeating words like that back, you should be impressed not offended.”

Remus was sat next to Sirius and he gave Lily’s temple a kiss, “Congratulations.”

She smiled, “Thank you. Do you want to hold him?”

Remus blinked, “Uh, let Sirius.”

Sirius grinned and took Harry from her and stood, walking over towards James at the far end of the room. “Aw, you sure he’s yours, James? Way too sweet.”

James swatted him playfully but cooed at his child none the less.

“So,” Lily said, turning to Remus, “you spent twelve hours in the airport and then did not catch the flight, huh?”

Remus groaned, “Let’s not even mention it, it was a nightmare!”

“You look exhausted. Hospital will keep me in tonight but it went well so I should be home tomorrow, I can give you the keys if you want, sleep there. Easier than driving back to your place.”

“Oh… thanks but, uh, Sirius already offered.”

Lily raised her eyebrows.

“Not like that, he has plenty of spare rooms by the sound of it.”

Lily just smiled at him, “Whatever you say. Care to tell me why he is wearing your jumper, has I heart London written on his arse, and has a horrible limp?”

Remus laughed, “It’s a long story.”

“You could have gone on the cruise, you know. Mary is going to kill you for wasting that ticket.”

“I think I’ll just tell her the flight got cancelled.”

“I’m not surprised you didn’t go, though. I can’t believe you even agreed in the first place.”

“Oh?”

“Come on, Remus, it is not your lack of faith that stops you agreeing to go on dates with people I try and set you up with, you just hate dating. Admit it.”

“I have a date; I’ll have you know.”

Lily sat up suddenly but groaned in pain, “Child birth is a bitch.”

“Language, Evans!” Sirius and James said simultaneously before laughing and returning their attention to Harry.

“Since when? With who?” Remus looked up at Sirius as discreetly as possible but Lily followed his eyeline.

“Oh my god!” she whispered, “for real?”

Remus shrugged, “We got on and just figured why not. If it doesn’t work out, I’m sure we can still be friends. Don’t get too excited.”

Lily was grinning, “No, it’s fine, just my best friend and my husband’s best friend going on a date. Whatever.”

Remus smiled, “I’m your best friend?”

“Don’t tell Mary. Hey,” she said, touching his arm, “I think you and Sirius will get on well, you know. He’s a nice guy once you get to know him.”

“Yeah… yeah, he is.”


	14. (a very short) Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's all folks! Thanks for reading if you made it this far, hope you enjoyed. I'm aware the writing is not great and it's very dialogue heavy but i honestly wasn't even planning to publish this, i just wrote it for a bit of fun and thought i'd share <3

_**One year later** _

**20:00**

“Fuck!”

“Sirius, language,” Remus hissed.

“I can’t bloody believe this. Are we cursed do you reckon?”

_21:00 – LONDON – DELAYED_

“Come on, it might only be an hour or so delayed.”

“I want to go home,” Sirius complained.

“Oh, yeah, because our romantic getaway to Paris was so dreadful.”

Sirius rolled his eyes, “Paris was lovely, Charles de Gaulle airport, not so much.”

_21:00 – LONDON – EXPECTED: 9:00_

Sirius was not the only one who swore at that. A collective groan rung out amongst various people watching the departures board.

“What do you reckon,” Remus asked, raising an eyebrow, “stay here or—”

“We are getting a hotel.”

“Well, if you’re offering.”

Sirius barked with laughter, “Oh, I’m paying for the room, am I?”

“You’re the one who wants that hotel.”

“You’re lucky I love you.”

Remus smiled and kissed his cheek. “Yeah, I know I am.”

“France has made you all sappy,” Sirius grimaced. “Come on, let’s go to a hotel, catch this plane tomorrow, and then never fly anywhere again, deal?”

“Deal.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! You can find me on instagram and tumblr @bethansfandoms
> 
> I do hope you enjoyed it because honestly there is so many things i wish i had done differently about this fic (like proof reading it and getting a beta reader ahhh past me is in big trouble) but i hope it was okay nonetheless!


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